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Michigan Web Designer Turns Canadian Quarter into a Wedding Ring

Making a ring from pocket change may be an old-hat concept by now, but for a web designer with no metalworking experience to take on the task of outfitting his fiancée? Now that takes amore. Michigan resident Richard Crawford decided that a store-bought wedding band would be too impersonal, so he decided to make one himself using a 1945 Canadian silver quarter from eBay. (His bride-to-be, elementary school teacher Sarah Bontinen, is Canadian.) Obviously he had to make do with whatever tools he had, but Crawford was also able to fashion a “very specialized jeweler’s tool” using a spoon and hammer.

SELF-MADE MAN

“I’d been vaguely aware that it was possible to make a ring out of a coin for a while so I did some (extensive) online research to figure out the details and whether or not it would be feasible,” Crawford told the Huffington Post on Monday. “I figured I would give it a shot.”

Crawford intends to create his own wedding band out of a British silver shilling to honor of his birthplace of Scotland.

After drilling a hole in the coin, Crawford used his makeshift instrument to smooth the edges of the coin. Six hours of tapping later, it was the correct width. He then used a Dremel-like tool to widen the hole before sanding the rims and the surface of the ring to give it a clean finish.

Unfortunately, Crawford wasn’t able to maintain the element of surprise, since he knew the metallic tapping noise would give him away. “[Bontinen] seemed enthusiastic but a little skeptical in that way that people are when you tell them that you’re going to hit a coin with a hammer until it becomes a wedding ring,” he said. “She was pleasantly surprised when she saw the finished product.”

Crawford is so pleased with the result, in fact, that he intends to create his own wedding band out of a British silver shilling to honor of his birthplace of Scotland. “I’m a firm believer that you can accomplish anything if you tackle it sensibly and put the effort in,” he said.